Lot 45 Roderic O'Conor

Roderic O'Conor RHA 1860-1940 BRETON INTERIOR Oil on board, 20'' x 30 3/4'' (51 x 78cm). Provenance: Crane Kalman Gallery, London; Christie's, London 9th May 1996 (lot 9); Milmo-Penny Fine Art, Dublin; Private Collection, Dublin; Sotheby's Irish Sale, 16 May 2002 (lot 75); for which the catalogue note read: Painted circa 1904, this interior is unusual in combining a figure study with a formal still life, and in so doing it forms a link between the Breton still lifes of the 1890s and the later 'intimiste'' works of the early 20th century. The same still life is featured in Still LIfe with Apple, Bottles and Jug (1904, private collection), the only variation being that one central bottle does not appear in the present work. The fruit plates and small cup to the right of the eartnenware pitcher are fashioned from the same blue and white tin glazed earthenware, or the same ones as featured in O'Conor's Self Portrait of 1910, and the large preserving pan behind the easel is similar to those featured in Aloysius O'Kelly's Breton works. Dr Roy Johnson has further commented on this work: 'Although perhaps best known for heavily striped landscapes which he painted in and around Pont-Aven between 1892 and 1894, O'Conor also painted numerous portraits of the Breton people. We can identify this young woman as a Pont-Aven resident because of the distinctive shape of her 'coiffe' or headdress which is specific to the town. Much more functional than the more elaborate white coiffes worn on Sundays and at religious festivals, this one is an everyday coiffe or 'coiffe du travail'. 'O'Conor has posed his model in a sparsely furnished studio, in which the sloping roof and the dormer window which admits the light are consistent with the architectural details of the old Hôtel des Voyageurs in Pont-Aven. As O'Conor is known to have stayed there in the company of other artists. It is likely the location of this particular interior' (Johnston, March 1996)